1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lighting device, a display apparatus providing the lighting device, and a television receiver providing the display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a direct backlight LED lighting device (hereinafter referred to as “direct backlight device”) attracts people's attention. In the direct backlight device, light emitting diodes (hereinafter referred to as “LEDs”) are arranged on the entire back surface of a liquid crystal panel as a backlight of the liquid crystal display apparatus.
The following direct backlight device has been suggested. In an LED module equipped with a plurality of LEDs arranged in a plurality of rows, a box-shaped connector is arranged close to one side or two opposing sides of a rectangular substrate of the LED module. The LED modules are arranged in two-dimensional directions (vertical direction and horizontal direction), and connectors of the LED modules adjacent to each other in one direction are electrically connected, so that a plurality of sizes can be supported (Conventional technique 1: for example, see FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-288194).
In the conventional technique 1, a drive circuit connector is arranged on one side of a substrate of an LED module at one end of the plurality of electrically-connected LED modules.
In the direct backlight device of the conventional technique 1, connectors protrude from the upper surface of the substrate. A part of the light emitted from an LED is absorbed by a housing of the connector, which reduces a brightness around the connector, and the connector serves as a barrier to prevent a diffusion of light. Due to the above reasons, a nonuniformity of brightness occurs.
Accordingly, conventional technique 2 has been suggested in order to solve this nonuniformity of brightness (for example, see FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-288194). In the conventional technique 2, a back wiring, instead of the connector, is formed on the back surface of the substrate of each LED module. The back wirings of the LED modules adjacent to each other in one direction are electrically connected, and each LED module is electrically connected to the drive circuit connector.
However, in the conventional technique 2, the back wiring has a particular pattern shape determined based on the number of LED modules arranged in one direction, and the back wiring of each LED module has a different pattern shape. Therefore, when the number of LED modules arranged in one direction is changed, it is necessary to prepare an LED module having a back wiring having a pattern shape corresponding to the number of the LED modules.
Moreover, in the conventional technique 1 and the conventional technique 2, a liquid crystal panel smaller than an LED module cannot be supported, and a liquid crystal panel having a size other than integral multiples of the size of the LED module cannot be supported (for example, 1.5 times, 2.5 times, and 3.5 times larger than the LED module).
Therefore, in order to various sizes of liquid crystal panels, it is necessary to increase the types of sizes of the LED modules. However, this would increase the production cost.